A Look Back in Time

When electricity was first harnessed and distributed to households at the end of the 19th century, there were many competing companies designing power plants, and systems for the distribution of electricity from these power plants. Naturally, no one wanted to change their designs to integrate with others’, and each company lobbied their governments to adopt their own solutions.

While there have been some attempts to standardise electrical sockets, voltage, and frequency, World War II put a stop to discussions, and were quickly overtaken by events. While the International Electrotechnical Commission did issue a universal standard for a universal plug in the 1970s, it has only been adopted by Brazil and South Africa thus far.

Fortunately, not all ideas have survived the test of time, so modern electrical power supplies are either 110V-127V or 220V-240V. They also have a frequency of either 50Hz or 60Hz. Watch the following video for more info:

Great. So What Does That Mean For Me?

Well, our German products are designed to work with a 220V-240V power supply. If you don’t know what electrical supply your country uses, check here at the IEC website. If your country uses a 110V-127V power supply, you will still be able to use these products if you use a transformer to convert the electrical supply to 110V-127V. This is a simple electrical device you plug into your existing electrical socket. You just need to purchase the appropriate transformer and plug your appliance into the transformer, and the transformer into your wall socket.

My Electrical Supply is the Same as the European Standard, what else do I Need to Consider?

One other consideration is whether the physical plug will connect to the wall socket. There are many different forms which a plug may take, from Type A to N. Again, the IEC has a great tool on their website discussing the differences between each type of plug.

However, regardless of the type of plug being used, if you have a qualified electrician installing your product for your, he would be able to easily swap the existing plug for one which fits exactly into your wall socket.